I've found myself oscillating between wonder and amazement at the size & effect of this event and great concern for the people that it's affecting.

First, I think some love needs to go out to the Japanese building codes. For being the 5th largest earthquake (or stronger, depending on any readjustments to the magnitude) since measurements began and hitting a densely populated area, there are surprisingly few casualties especially from the shaking itself. I don't mean to diminish the large loss of life that has occurred, but it certainly could've been much, much worse. Proof? This incredible video of skyscrapers swaying in Tokyo:

Being a major, modern, industrialized nation means there's been a lot of amazing and powerful footage of the events as they happened. Some of the more incredible:

Tsunami inundates fields and towns

Tsunami flows through town

The tsunami spread throughout the Pacific basin, though thankfully the effects elsewhere were generally minor thanks to early warning systems (and fairly minor tsunami heights). An energy map of the tsunami from NOAA:

This video shows the tsunami rolling inside the San Fransisco Bay, over 5,000 miles away from the epicenter: